New Delhi: India’s largest telecom service provider Bharti Airtel on Thursday announced a Rs 4,428-crore deal to buy Videocon Telecom’s spectrum in six regions to expand its footprint in 4G — purportedly the new frontier of the next telecom war.
The deal was announced a day after Idea Cellular called off a spectrum trading deal with Videocon in two circles. Bharti Airtel signed a deal for rights to use 2 x 5 MHz spectrum in the 1,800 MHz band allotted to Videocon for six circles: Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, UP (East); UP (West) and Gujarat. This spectrum is valid upto December 18, 2032.
The acquisition will give Bharti the ability to offer 4G services in 19 of 22 circles compared with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio, which has access to 4G spectrum in all 22 circles. Rating agency Fitch said that Airtel will fund spectrum acquisition from the sale of operations in Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone to France’s Orange.
